This master´s thesis covers the methods and results of a quantitative study of Linear Pottery cemeteries in Austria, Bohemia, Moravia and Southern Germany. The research goal was to find social patterns in Early Neolithic funerary practices on a regional and local level. For this purpose, different analytical approaches have been used: Seriation (for dating artefacts to place them in chronological order), correspondence analysis (for calculating relationships of artefacts to each other),

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... tion maps, and the newly developed "Analysis N Next Neighbours". The subjects of these analyses were grave goods, anthropological or physical characteristics (e. g. age, sex, positioning) and other traits and features (grave pit orientation, burial type, preservation condition etc.). This data derived from the archaeological image database Montelius and the tasks have been carried out by the software WinSerion, which also provided graphical representations of the outcome. Additionaly, previous research on Linear Pottery cemeteries were also integrated for comparison. In general, this study emphasizes significant differences and similarities between regions and sites, certain pecularities and dynamic social patterns within Early Neolithic mortuary rites. As not all published cemeteries in Middle Europe were covered, these results could be seen as preliminary. Consequently, a sequel to this study should be considered, which includes the data of all known Linear Pottery cemeteries and implements additional information (e. g. isotopes, diseases).